Saturday, May 17, 2014

Walk more, think better?

It seems the answer is "yes":

Steve Jobs, Beethoven knew walking increases creativity; Stanford study says they were right
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Beethoven knew walking boosted their creativity. Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, held walking meetings. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg keeps meetings on foot. Beethoven created sonatas and symphonies while strolling the Vienna Woods.

A new study confirms that creative thinking improves while a person is walking and shortly thereafter, according to a new study co-authored by Marily Oppezzo, a Stanford doctoral graduate in educational psychology, and Daniel Schwartz, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education.

The study found it didn't matter where you walk -- strolling indoors or outdoors similarly boosted creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and not the environment, was the main factor. Across the board, creativity levels were consistently and significantly higher for those walking compared to those sitting.

"Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why," Oppezzo and Schwartz wrote in the study published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.
See the original article for embedded links. I'm not surprised by the study. I've often found that going for a walk when I have to think over something, helps me to make better decisions and become clearer in my mind.

     

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